McClatchy: Repeal of war authorization may create constitutional minefield (must read!)

[grytpype]

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/16770157.htm?source=rss&channel=krwashington_nation

Repeal of war authorization may create constitutional minefield
By Michael Doyle
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Sen. Dianne Feinstein wants Congress to undeclare the war in Iraq.

Other leading Democrats agree, following a lead the Californian took with the introduction of a bill a week ago. But as lawmakers craft their latest Iraq strategy, they could be entering either a constitutional minefield or an exercise in futility.

"I have never, ever heard of a declaration of war being taken away," Ruth Wedgwood, a Johns Hopkins University international law professor, said Friday. "It's certainly constitutionally ambitious, if not outrageous."

Congress has declared wars, such as World War I. Congress has adopted peace treaties, as happened after World War II. Congress has authorized force, twice against Iraq, and Congress has cut off war funding, effectively ending the Vietnam conflict.

But removing a president's war-making authority while it's still being used is something different. It has happened, once, but it accomplished little.

...
The one time Congress did withdraw war authorization, the results were unimpressive.

In June 1970 Congress repealed the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which had authorized the Vietnam war. The Senate seemed to speak emphatically. By an 81-10 vote, senators first added the Gulf of Tonkin repeal to another bill. Then, by a 57-5 vote several weeks later, the Senate passed a separate repeal resolution.

President Nixon signed the bill that included the Gulf of Tonkin repeal. He also kept the Vietnam war going, using what he called inherent presidential powers.

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[provis99]

1. this Johns Hopkins prof was either taken out of context, or is completely clueless

Congress has every right to oversee the conduct of a war, including removing Chicken George's ass from office through impeachment for his numerous war crimes. Congress is simply failing in its constitutional duty by not overseeing the war; this idea that a declaration of war is a blank check is obscene and outrageous, not what the clueless prof thinks.